Cars burnt in French election violence

Hundreds of people have arrested in France overnight in clashes
between police and protesters angry over conservative Nicolas
Sarkozy's victory in Sunday's presidential election, police
say.

Official figures released on Monday said demonstrators set fire
to 730 cars and injured 78 policemen across France, with 592 people
arrested in the violent protests against the tough-talking former
interior minister.

The tally was revised sharply upwards after an initial report
appeared to downplay the clashes and was at odds with local police
figures and eyewitness reports, which suggested widespread troubles
in numerous French cities.

Sarkozy made his name as a law-and-order hardliner who also
tightened France's immigration laws, making him a hate figure for
the left. Slogans spray-painted on the streets of Paris overnight
included "Sarkozy fascist".

Leftist sympathisers clashed with police in and around Paris's
Place de la Bastille after Sarkozy's victory against Socialist
Segolene Royal and security forces fired tear gas and at least one
burst of water cannon to disperse the crowd.

Youths went on the rampage in adjoining streets, smashing phone
cabins and shop windows.

Similar attacks were reported in the southeastern city of Lyon
and the southern city of Toulouse. Bus shelters were smashed in the
northern city of Lille and a school was set on fire in the Paris
suburb of Evry.

In the northern department clustered around Lille, about 100
cars were torched, the fire brigade said.

In Nantes, 26 people were held for questioning and six police
were slightly injured after 1,000 people joined a march against
Sarkozy in the western city, said Yves Monard, head of public
security of the Loire-Atlantique department.

Cars and shop windows were also damaged in Nantes while to the
northwest, in Caen, four police were hurt and an attempt was made
to set fire to the local office of Sarkozy's UMP party.

Sarkozy is a particularly controversial figure in France's poor,
multi-ethnic suburbs, which were the epicentre of three weeks of
rioting in 2005.

At the time Sarkozy branded the troublemakers as scum and Royal
said last week that a victory by her opponent would provoke
violence in French suburbs.

However, an internal police memo obtained by Reuters said there
was no large-scale trouble there.

"The second round of the presidential election did not generate
any large demonstrations of urban violence in sensitive
neighbourhoods," said the memo.

It added that the level of violence was above that usually seen
on July 14 Bastille Day, France's national holiday, "but below that
of New Year's celebrations".

Police say on an average just over 100 cars are set ablaze in
France each night.

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